1. Field of the Invention
The device of this invention relates to animal restraining means and more particularly relates to a device which allows movement of the restrained animal but restricting such movement to specific areas.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Animal tether devices are well known in the prior art. A typical device may include a line extended from one pole or tree to another with a pulley attached to such line which pulley runs along the line. An eyebolt is attached to the pulley and the animal's leash is attached to the eyebolt so that the animal can run back and forth attached to the line by the movable pulley within a specific area. Unfortunately many problems have occurred with the pulley-type of device because animals tend to become tangled in line snags and also people can accidentally bump into the line. Efforts have been made such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,563,212 to Madiar to prevent tangling by having a suspended cable on which a sleeve moves, such sleeve being attached to a chain running to the animal. The sleeve moves on the cable through eye members mounted on a series of posts, allowing the animal to move around the perimeter of the area to which the cable extends. Problems still may arise with this device. For example, if the animal walks around one of the posts, it would quickly become tangled. The problem of tangling has been addressed in a number of ways in the prior art. Smith in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,478 discloses a tether assembly which has an extending link in the tether line holding the animal so that if it moves away from the post, the tether extends but yet does not come in contact with the ground. The Smith device still may not prevent tangling around the post itself should the animal run in a direction around the post even though the tether members may be rigid. Others approached the problem by placing the tether rail on or in the ground so as to avoid the use of posts entirely. Three examples of such approaches are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,399 to Banks; U.S. Pat. No. 3,189,003 to Canfield; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,845 to Roehrig. In the Banks device a channel is provided attached to the ground in which channel a carriage, mounted on wheels, moves back and forth along a track as it is pulled by the animal which is tethered thereto by a line 24 attached to a rotatable pivot element affixed on the movable carriage. This patent illustrates several embodiments of carriages and arrangements of wheel members to ride within various track configurations. The Canfield patent cited above also utilizes a channel member attached or embedded in the ground in which a tether member moves being pulled by a line attached to the animal. This device has the advantage of great simplicity in construction. However, the tracks of both the Banks and Canfield inventions can easily become clogged with debris which will curtail their proper operation as they are directly on the ground. Another ground attachment device is disclosed in the Roehrig patent but this device has most of its attachment members affixed to protruding portions of the track so as to avoid the likelihood of track blockage common to ground-mounted prior art devices.